Arequipa and the last (good) supper

I'm not even going to talk about our second encounter with Lima... ok, at least not much.

We had already done what we felt had to be done in the city, but we needed to get some more paperwork done... and that was pretty much it.

We still had a few great dinners with friends and a few great dinners with just the two of us. I did catch up with an old (and extremely crazy) friend, and that was gold. Singing out loud on the streets and all.

Not much to say about the second encounter with Lima, really.

We knew we had to head South and it had to be soon, so we did a bit of research and decided on our itinerary, which was going to be a bit of a race. 

First stop: Arequipa. But before that, I need to tell you about our bus ride.

We were lucky enough to pay the price for "semicama" seats ("semi-bed", which loosely translated means good luck trying to sleep while being this uncomfortable, Chey), but get sent to the "cama" ("bed", which means more space and seats that recline a good deal more) section, on the lower part of the bus.

We were completely stoked that we could stretch our legs and had a lot of room to put our bulky bags of snacks and our daypacks.

So as soon as we were seated and the bus started, we began to feast on Doritos and Skittles to celebrate. The whole "cama" section was empty except for us, and the high lasted until a couple of hours later, when it got dark and we realized that no-one was going to switch off the SUPERLOUD DVD that kept replaying non-stop, and neither were they going to switch off the fluorescent lights. 

It felt like they were trying to brainwash us, Clockwork-Orange-style.

I desperately tried to make contact with the driver, but there was no way. They are in the front where passengers have absolutely no way of getting to them, and they fully ignore your desperate knocks on the thick, black glasspane that separates them from the rest of us, passenger peasants.

Frustrated and tired, the upgrade happiness fully gone, I tried to fall asleep. 

Finally they switched everything off and there was peace (but they also had a light collision with other vehicle which kept us from moving for a few hours... I guess you can't have it all).

.

We arrived in Arequipa and my first impression was: this city is ridiculously bright.

For some reason I can't fully comprehend, Arequipa (which has a lovely city centre, by the way) shines in the sun like no city ever did*. Every whitewashed building, every colonial bit, seems to reflect the unforgiving sun, giving the whole place an otherworldly feel.

Bright Arequipa is bright.

 A taxi took us to the city centre where, faithful to our random tradition, we started looking for a place to stay.

We ended up at this cozy family house/ hospedaje that was super popular on tripadvisor.

On arrival, an overexcited man opened the entrance door for us and showed us the place, which was simple but nice and cheap. He also showed us the terrace, where he told us "someone told me I have a marihuana plant in the balcony... I wouldn't know! Can you tell me if this is a marihuana plant?"
while pointing at an OBVIOUS (and pretty big) marihuana plant on an innocent flower pot, growing next to the flowers.

We said we were pretty sure it actually was a marihuana plant, so he just ripped it out and threw it in the garbage.

After dropping the bags in our new room, we went out and took a heap of photos of the city, which is very pretty.

A pigeon-friendly St Francis outside a church.

Very Peruvian details.

City centre+ more church.

Most chill protest ever: people asking for cycle paths
"for peace and life".

Sneaky nun pic.

Amazing facade and cute little old lady.

I wish I could remember what was Chey pointing at (he looks so happy!)

Antique store. If we were millionaires, y'all would've got
Peruvian antiques as souvenirs.

The golden light of the sunset.

The couple of days spent in Arequipa were evenly divided like this: walking and looking at beautiful Peruvian crafts/ Eating/ walking a bit more, more crafts/ coffee/ walking and taking photos of the beautiful sunset, or sitting at the terrace and taking photos of the beautiful sunset/ eating.

Lovely colonial building turned into falafel shop.

The sunset from "our" terrace.

Me, probably blogging, wrapped on Chey's comfy sweater
(one of the many perks of having a travel mate)

More of the sunset.

Sunset close-up and skyline.

After sunset.

 The last night we decided that being our last night in Perú, and with the INEVITABLE approach of Chile (not our favourite cuisine, to say the least) we deserved a nice dinner. So we took ourselves to Chicha.

If you remember the Flavours of Cuzco post, then you'll
remember how much we love anything Gaston Acurio.

Chicha is one of his many restaurants. And it's awesome.

We even had our meals modified to suit our non-meat thing.

The morning after what felt like some kind of last supper we collected all of our things, and got ready for what we thought was going to be the last bit of the adventure: going South through Chile as quickly as possible.

*I realize that maybe another city might have shone like Arequipa in the sun, but since I never saw such thing I'll stick to my words